One of the first things you should do before beginning your search is identify your search terms. To determine your search terms, take a look at your topic or thesis statement and determine what the main concepts of your topic are (Need help determing a topic? Try the Selecting a Topic module). These main concepts will often be your initial search terms. Once you have these initial search terms you can generate even more search terms by answering the following questions:

1. Do any of my search terms have synonyms?
2. Can I make my search term broader (is it part of something else)?
3. Can I make my search term narrower or more specific (is there a specific example that I can focus on)?

For example, take a look at the following topic:

"Women during times of war, with particular interest in stories and instances of women who showed bravery or courage during war situations."

Looking at this topic we can determine our main concepts and thus our main search terms. We can then use our questions to determine our synonyms, and related or narrower search terms.

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